1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a print processing system in which client devices, printers, and print servers are connected to each other via a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Technologies are known that make it possible to select an optimal combination of a plurality of apparatuses to perform a printing process. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-102613, for example, discloses a technology that makes it possible to determine, based on processing capabilities of the apparatuses and print job attributes indicating print conditions for performing the printing process, an optimal combination of printing apparatuses on which a printing process can be performed.
On the other hand, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-078461 discloses a distributed processing system that executes a process by distributing portions of the process on a plurality of apparatuses. In this system, a client computer selects a server computer from among a plurality of server computers, based on processing capabilities and operating conditions of the server computers, to perform an image processing, and requests the selected server to execute the processing. This technology makes it possible to execute the image processing efficiently.
The technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-102613 is not suitable for distributed processing. On the other hand, the technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-078461 requires that the client computer has the information about the process conditions of the entire print processing system, which is not practical.